Engaging “Communities, Groups and Individuals” in the International Mechanisms of the 2003 Intangible Heritage Convention

Abstract: The aim of this article is to examine how the requirement in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICHC) to ensure the effective involvement of local communities, groups, and individuals (as well as experts, centers of expertise, and research institutions) in the implementation of the Convention can be put into better effect in its international operation. Although examples exist of international treaties that involve non-governmental and other civil society bodies in their implementation at the international level, mostly with regard to Indigenous peoples, the mechanisms for such involvement are still underdeveloped and not wholly satisfactory. Since it has proved difficult to put community participation at the intergovernmental level into practice within the framework of the ICHC, the author seeks to identify approaches that can be usefully employed in the treaty—in particular, by considering participatory models found in other international treaty frameworks in the heritage and environmental protection law fields.